Could anyone please tell me of an organic way to kill moss on a small, damp,
north facing lawn. I have spiked it, added sand to improve drainage and fed
it but so far no improvement.
The moss is very pretty but when it dries out in the summer I am just left
with a brown mess.

Thankyou

Elaine

--
--
Andrew and Elaine MacGregor

On Wed, 2 Apr 2003 11:32:53 +0100, "Elaine MacGregor"
wrote:

~Could anyone please tell me of an organic way to kill moss on a small, damp,
~north facing lawn. I have spiked it, added sand to improve drainage and fed
~it but so far no improvement.
~The moss is very pretty but when it dries out in the summer I am just left
~with a brown mess.
~
well I've lost half a lawn this winter to moss. I literally have no
grass left on the worst half of it, though it was mostly due to having
a teak garden seat on it - not enough light got through. I raked a
binlinerfull out with a lawn rake (£4 B&Q) then tried to use a
borrowed hollow tined aerator (not much good as it kept clogging) and
in a week or so (now it's rained) I'm going to rake again then reseed
with shady lawn seed. Hard work though!

Next year the seat gets put on the path overwinter.

I suspect that if it's really bad, hiring a scarifier will clear the
moss and thatch (and make it look terrible) but you can then top dress
with compost and sand, reseed with shade seed and have a good grass
lawn by midsummer with not a chemical in sight.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove nospam from replies, thanks!

In article ,
Elaine MacGregor wrote:
Could anyone please tell me of an organic way to kill moss on a small, damp,
north facing lawn. I have spiked it, added sand to improve drainage and fed
it but so far no improvement.
The moss is very pretty but when it dries out in the summer I am just left
with a brown mess.

It won't help. There is no grass that will thrive over a wider range
of waterlogging to dessication than moss will. If your lawn is very
damp in winter and dries out in summer, then you will merely end up
with shrivelled grass in summer.

Unless you can get the drainage good enough that the soils drains well
in winter, you will always have trouble in summer.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Elaine MacGregor" wrote in
message ...
Could anyone please tell me of an organic way to kill moss on a small,
damp,
north facing lawn. I have spiked it, added sand to improve drainage
and fed
it but so far no improvement.
The moss is very pretty but when it dries out in the summer I am just
left
with a brown mess.

Thankyou

Elaine

--
--
Andrew and Elaine MacGregor



You could refer to "moss" below "31/3/03"

I suspect your lawn is not only North facing but also shaded
Are their conifers in the vicinity ?
These always seem to upset the grass nutrient balance and encourage moss


"Elaine MacGregor" wrote in message
...
Could anyone please tell me of an organic way to kill moss on a small,
damp,
north facing lawn. I have spiked it, added sand to improve drainage and
fed
it but so far no improvement.
The moss is very pretty but when it dries out in the summer I am just left
with a brown mess.

Thankyou

Elaine

--
--
Andrew and Elaine MacGregor

On Wed, 2 Apr 2003 11:32:53 +0100, Elaine MacGregor wrote:

Could anyone please tell me of an organic way to kill moss on a small, damp,
north facing lawn. I have spiked it, added sand to improve drainage and fed
it but so far no improvement.
The moss is very pretty but when it dries out in the summer I am just left
with a brown mess.


Aha. Last Sunday, I was just talking with my friend who is a
botanist at our local university. She and her husband conducted
an experiment on their own lawn to evaluate moss-control methods.

Suggested strategy as a result:

1. rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as you can. You can
put it into the compost.
2. cut the grass long, not short
3. apply lime and fertilizer in modest amounts

"Moss killer" fertilizer containing ferrous sulfate may help but
raking the moss out is (as written above) the #1 thing to do.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 2 Apr 2003 11:32:53 +0100, Elaine MacGregor wrote:

Could anyone please tell me of an organic way to kill moss on a
small, damp,
north facing lawn. I have spiked it, added sand to improve drainage
and fed
it but so far no improvement.
The moss is very pretty but when it dries out in the summer I am
just left
with a brown mess.


Aha. Last Sunday, I was just talking with my friend who is a
botanist at our local university. She and her husband conducted
an experiment on their own lawn to evaluate moss-control methods.

Suggested strategy as a result:

1. rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as you can. You can
put it into the compost.
2. cut the grass long, not short
3. apply lime and fertilizer in modest amounts

"Moss killer" fertilizer containing ferrous sulfate may help but
raking the moss out is (as written above) the #1 thing to do.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

That is a years old standard treatment

Bell

"Annabel" wrote in news:b6h5u6$f7k$1
@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk:


"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in
message ...

Aha. Last Sunday, I was just talking with my friend who is a
botanist at our local university. She and her husband conducted
an experiment on their own lawn to evaluate moss-control methods.

Suggested strategy as a result:

1. rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as you can. You can
put it into the compost.
2. cut the grass long, not short
3. apply lime and fertilizer in modest amounts

"Moss killer" fertilizer containing ferrous sulfate may help but
raking the moss out is (as written above) the #1 thing to do.


That is a years old standard treatment

Surely that doesn't mean that the news that someone has tested it
(presumably against a control or other possible methods), and proved it
to work, isn't a good thing.

There are lots of 'standard' gardening treatments, but that doesn't mean
they are necessarily the best/easiest/cheapest. I've certainly found
misleading gardening advice in books and magazines before now! (or at
least,'standard' advice that didn't work for me).

For example, I never have much luck pruning clematis exactly as the
books/labels say you should. When I do that, slugs eat all the young
shoots. I have found leaving some extra stalk in place lifts those young
shoots out of their reach.

And I know that real sweet pea experts plant theirs in autumn, but mine
get hopelessly leggy when I do that, whereas spring plantings work
better for what I want (not exhibition blooms, but some cheerful easy
plants)

Victoria

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
.217...
"Annabel" wrote in news:b6h5u6$f7k$1
@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk:


"Rodger Whitlock" wrote
in
message ...

Aha. Last Sunday, I was just talking with my friend who is a
botanist at our local university. She and her husband conducted
an experiment on their own lawn to evaluate moss-control methods.

Suggested strategy as a result:

1. rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as you can. You can
put it into the compost.
2. cut the grass long, not short
3. apply lime and fertilizer in modest amounts

"Moss killer" fertilizer containing ferrous sulfate may help but
raking the moss out is (as written above) the #1 thing to do.


That is a years old standard treatment

Surely that doesn't mean that the news that someone has tested it
(presumably against a control or other possible methods), and proved
it
to work, isn't a good thing.


I didn't mean to imply it wasn't a good thing, what I mean is that this
is a standard, well tried and tested, method which I would have thought
was the first thing to do, other than drainage, to combat moss.

Bell

On Thu, 03 Apr 2003 14:01:32 +0100, Victoria Clare wrote:

"Annabel" wrote in news:b6h5u6$f7k$1
@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk:


"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in
message ...

Aha. Last Sunday, I was just talking with my friend who is a
botanist at our local university. She and her husband conducted
an experiment on their own lawn to evaluate moss-control methods.

Suggested strategy as a result:

1. rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as you can. You can
put it into the compost.
2. cut the grass long, not short
3. apply lime and fertilizer in modest amounts

"Moss killer" fertilizer containing ferrous sulfate may help but
raking the moss out is (as written above) the #1 thing to do.


That is a years old standard treatment

Surely that doesn't mean that the news that someone has tested it
(presumably against a control or other possible methods), and proved it
to work, isn't a good thing.

My friend and her husband are both research botanists and have a
distinctly scientific and experimental outlook on such matters.

As Victoria Clare has guessed, they conducted a simple but
reliable 2-way experiment, so the recommendation is, for a
pleasant change, not based on old wives' tales.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Aha. Last Sunday, I was just talking with my friend who is a
botanist at our local university. She and her husband conducted
an experiment on their own lawn to evaluate moss-control methods.

Suggested strategy as a result:

1. rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as you can. You can
put it into the compost.
2. cut the grass long, not short
3. apply lime and fertilizer in modest amounts

"Moss killer" fertilizer containing ferrous sulfate may help but
raking the moss out is (as written above) the #1 thing to do.


That is a years old standard treatment

Surely that doesn't mean that the news that someone has tested it
(presumably against a control or other possible methods), and proved
it
to work, isn't a good thing.

My friend and her husband are both research botanists and have a
distinctly scientific and experimental outlook on such matters.

As Victoria Clare has guessed, they conducted a simple but
reliable 2-way experiment, so the recommendation is, for a
pleasant change, not based on old wives' tales.


Not all old wives tales should be belittled, indeed your friends have
just proved that a long established (because of its effectiveness)
highly potent method of treating moss is validated. I did not try to
denigrate your friends I merely said it was a long established method.
See also my reply to Victoria Clare.

The message
from "Annabel" contains these words:

I didn't mean to imply it wasn't a good thing, what I mean is that this
is a standard, well tried and tested, method which I would have thought
was the first thing to do, other than drainage, to combat moss.

Obviously the OP didn't know, nor could he read your thoughts.
Newsgroups don't operate by telepathy. Please read the abc for newcomers
post which appears weekly, and find out how to edit quoted posts.

Janet

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Annabel" contains these words:

I didn't mean to imply it wasn't a good thing, what I mean is that
this
is a standard, well tried and tested, method which I would have
thought
was the first thing to do, other than drainage, to combat moss.

Obviously the OP didn't know, nor could he read your thoughts.
Newsgroups don't operate by telepathy.

I didnt have those thoughts that the poster, not the OP, thought I had.
*She* inferd them from a very simple statement "That is a years old
standard treatment"

Please read the abc for newcomers
post which appears weekly, and find out how to edit quoted posts.

Where would that help me as I didnt edit nor need to edit quoted posts



Janet

"Annabel" wrote in message ...
Aha. Last Sunday, I was just talking with my friend who is a
botanist at our local university. She and her husband conducted
an experiment on their own lawn to evaluate moss-control methods.

Suggested strategy as a result:

1. rake as much of the moss out of the lawn as you can. You can
put it into the compost.
2. cut the grass long, not short
3. apply lime and fertilizer in modest amounts

"Moss killer" fertilizer containing ferrous sulfate may help but
raking the moss out is (as written above) the #1 thing to do.


That is a years old standard treatment

Surely that doesn't mean that the news that someone has tested it
(presumably against a control or other possible methods), and proved
it
to work, isn't a good thing.

My friend and her husband are both research botanists and have a
distinctly scientific and experimental outlook on such matters.

As Victoria Clare has guessed, they conducted a simple but
reliable 2-way experiment, so the recommendation is, for a
pleasant change, not based on old wives' tales.


Not all old wives tales should be belittled, indeed your friends have
just proved that a long established (because of its effectiveness)
highly potent method of treating moss is validated. I did not try to
denigrate your friends I merely said it was a long established method.
See also my reply to Victoria Clare.

I wonder if RHUBARB concoction will work.Havn't tried it.Just a thought..Ken

The message
from "Annabel" contains these words:


"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Annabel" contains these words:

I didn't mean to imply it wasn't a good thing, what I mean is that
this
is a standard, well tried and tested, method which I would have
thought
was the first thing to do, other than drainage, to combat moss.

Obviously the OP didn't know, nor could he read your thoughts.
Newsgroups don't operate by telepathy.

I didnt have those thoughts that the poster, not the OP, thought I had.
*She* inferd them from a very simple statement "That is a years old
standard treatment"

I was referring to your comment "I would have thought it was the first
thing to do".

Please read the abc for newcomers
post which appears weekly, and find out how to edit quoted posts.

Where would that help me as I didnt edit nor need to edit quoted posts

!!!!!!

It would help you look less foolish.

Janet.